Intel Intros New 120GB SSD, Drops Prices on X25’s

Intel added a 120GB SSD to its X25-M drive lineup today. The new drive looks like the sweet spot of the lineup as it comes at just a $50 premium over the 80GB version. Swapping out your spinning hard drive for an SSD can significantly improve your everyday computing experience. Applications launch faster, the system boots faster and files open almost instantaneously. There’s alos the added benefit of improved reliability and durability.

The downside of SSDs. What’s keeping them from going mainstream are price and capacity. At the upper end of the spectrum, the 160B Intel X25-M costs $415. The largest SSDs sold by most PC companies is 256GB, about half the size of the roomy 500GB hard drives that are available even on sub $600 laptops these days.

If you’re after a performance boost on your mobile machine and don’t need to store a lot of data, you can experience the wonders of SSDs for just $99, the MSRP of the 40GB Intel X25-M drive. We’ve found it at some retailers for just $89.

Intel put together a short video to celebrate the launch of the 120GB drive. I was a bit disappointed with the video as a ingle guy dropping out of a prop plane doesn’t exactly scream performance. How about a HALO jumper…or 120 guys jumping out of the back of a cargo plane?

Xavier Lanier is the publisher of Gotta Be Mobile and a photographer. He uses too many devices to count, but his current favorites are the iPhone 6 Plus, Nikon D800 and Sony RX 100M II. You can follow him on Twitter and Google+.